


Tricky Business

by WordMusician



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Beginning of Stolen Earth, Dimension-Hopping Rose, F/M, Gen, Pre-Episode: s04e11 Turn Left, Timey-Wimey, almost canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22425097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordMusician/pseuds/WordMusician
Summary: Where Jack found the inspiration to keep going after the "year that never was" and why Rose knew enough to bring a big badass gun when she hopped to Earth.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 27
Kudos: 67





	1. A Damp Mood

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wondered about a few plot "holes" in the finale of DW Season Four. Why does Rose have a big gun? Why is Jack not shocked to see her? How did Rose manage to hop to Earth after it had been ripped from it's orbit? I had to tweak cannon just a smidgen to make this work. Please forgive me. :)

Death is a tricky business.

Dying is always a wild card and guaranteed to be painful. Sometimes it’s straightforward: a knife, a bullet, a rope, a javelin. Even Gravity can do you in if you tempt her. Other times death is somewhat more complicated, like poisoning or torture or bombing.

“The worst is suffocating or drowning. Especially if you die trying to escape but fail and then have to die again or maybe even a third time getting out.” Jack Harkness spoke into his tumbler of whiskey. Neat, this time. He didn’t think he would stomach the clinking of melting ice anytime soon.

“Blimey mate! ‘ow much o’ that ‘ave you had?”

Jack blinked. He hadn’t realized he’d been ruminating aloud. He switched his attention from his emptying glass to the man who’d elbowed his way to the bar to next to his stool. “Not enough if I’m still talking about it.” He shook his head slowly, his damp hair tumbling forward into his eyes.

A friendly hand patted his shoulder before accepting the pint the bartender pushed his way. “S’all right; we all got our stories, eh? Cheers.”

Jack tapped his now empty glass against the mug. “True enough.”

“Wuz it like then?” The man leaned over in a conspiratorial whisper, “You know, after you’re dead?”

Jack breathed in the alcohol scented breath and considered the watery gaze of his interested friend before answering. He shrugged and lied. “Nothing; there’s nothing. Sometimes it seems a long nothing, sometimes it’s short. But there’s nothing; when you’re dead you’re just dead.” Unless you’re me or a Time Lord.

“I’ll drink to that,” and he did. “It’s a comfort to think this life is all there is. I don’t ‘ave to worry about the Big Man upstairs keeping accounts.”

“If that works for you – good on you, mate.” Jack stood and gestured to his seat, “I’m off. Want my seat?”

“Right-o. Thanks.” Walking away, Jack heard him order a shot of bitters to go with his beer. “Oi, ‘enry, ya gotta ‘ear this….”

Jack smiled bitterly while he shoved open the pub door into the night. The alcohol had chased way the chill but not the memories of the last few hours. He wasn’t exactly reckless (much) with his life. He sure didn’t enjoy pain (unless leather and steamy sex were involved) but danger and adventure chased after him and death seemed to be their sidekick. He’d seen a lot in his wild travels and while the 21st century was where it all changed for planet Earth, even he was beginning to think things were darker and more deadly than previously imagined.

Depressingly sober, Jack considered his options. He could call for a lift back to Torchwood. He could sniff out another after-hours bar in a continued hope of drowning (he flinched as his own choice of words) his sorrows. Or he could just ramble, walk off some of the unease this last encounter had left. Resignedly he started to walk, briefly wishing he’d taken the time to wring out his socks in his sodden boots.

He’d lied to that man just now. The truth was far more complicated for there was something after death but Jack couldn’t explain it or understand it. True, sometimes there was nothing but not always. It was random, the best he could tell, but sometimes there was something there. Sometimes, like tonight, Jack had felt pulled toward something, some presence. But he never got to go too far. Like taunt elastic he always snapped back into this plain of existence. There was no bright light or beckoning voice, like some people claimed, just an awareness of something other, just out of his reach.

Not for the first time, he wished he could talk to the Doctor about it. He wondered if regenerating was similar to his own experience and if the time lord had ever sensed he wasn’t alone in the transitioning moment. But the times of long talks in the TARDIS while Rose was fast asleep were just a dim, precious memory now. That had been before; before he was “gifted” with this inability to stay dead. The Doctor had managed to explain in part what had happened to him but the knowledge was of little consequence and no consolation. Rose was gone so he couldn’t thank her and/or forgive her. And now being a fixed point somehow spoiled his relationship with the Doctor, putting a distance between them Jack could not figure out how to bridge.

Jack was alone in his uniqueness. Jack was lonely. Jack was feeling sorry for himself.


	2. Surprise Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has a pleasant but mysterious surprise.

He stopped to look up at the late night sky, fancying that he could discern a magical blue box traveling across the inky expanse. In a few hours the sky would lighten in the predawn, but for now the stars were clear and beckoning. On the far edge of his peripheral vision a light flashed but Jack’s reflexes were dulled by too many drinks and he was slow to turn. Probably just a door opening, some bloke off to work the early shift, poor bugger.

“Jack? Oh my god, Jack!” Running steps, boots on pavement had him spinning and crouching before he replied.

She stopped a few feet away, registering his defensive posture. “Jack, it’s me,” her voice revealed the surprise of her reception. “We’ve met before, yeah?” Time travel could be complicated.

Almost as if a switch was flicked, Jack shook off his surprise and opened his arms to his best girl. “Rosie!” He closed the gap and enveloped her in a bear hug. The last person he ever expected to encounter but the first person on his list if he ever hoped to shake this melancholy. “Great to see you – just wasn’t expecting it,” he squeezed harder and silently thanked the gods for this bittersweet gift. “Is he with you?”

Rose pressed her cheek to his shoulder, returning the fierce hug. “No. I’m alone. Actually,” she pulled away looking up into his face. “That’s the problem: we were separated and I’m trying to find him.”

“Of course! And clever girl that you are to came straight to Captain Jack. How can I help?”

Rose frowned slightly. “Well that depends. Time travel can make this tricky so I need to ask you some questions first.”

Jack smiled and quickly rattled off the day, date, area, country and planet for her. Basic orientation.

Rose smiled and nodded. “Thanks that helps.”

“Ex-Time Agent,” he replied smugly. He was remembering their dance on top of his cloaked ship tethered to Big Ben. He’d had the mood, the music and the moves, but someone else already had her heart. Too bad she’d gone and stolen his anyway....

“Getting pretty experienced myself, thank you,” she said with just enough weariness to be revealing.

Jack took in her appearance: the semi-military stance, the dark clothes and army boots. This wasn’t the Rose Tyler he’d known – at least not on the surface. She’d grown a protective shell for that beguiling innocent spirit he adored. “Alright, a question for you now: pre or post Canary Wharf?”

“Definitely post.”

He was surprised. “Whoa! Really? But the Doctor said that you were trapped over there, the walls were closed or something.” What was going on here? First he’d had a disturbing night and now Rose was making a miraculous appearance.

“You’ve seen him? Since I fell?” Something like relief flitted across her features then she bit her lip. “How…how is he?”

Jack placed steadying hands on her shoulders. “Miserable.” Rose blushed. _Now that’s more like my Rosie._ “Of course he’s busy off saving this world or that – same as usual. And he still talks a good talk but…oh, he misses you darling. Plain as day.”

“I need to find him, Jack.” The blush was gone, replaced by determined thinning of lips.

“Well sure.” Some people spilled out of the pub, laughing and shouting goodbyes. “We should go somewhere,” Jack advised, silently debating the pros and cons of Torchwood. He lived there so it wasn’t as if he had an apartment someplace where they could be undisturbed. “How’d you get here? Got a ship or something?”

“No – “ Her wrist beeped at them. “That’s my timer. I have 5 minutes before automatic recall.”

“Recall?”

“Yeah, we built this thing – called it a dimensional cannon. It sorta shot me over here.”

Jack didn’t pretend to hide his shock. He’d used a vortex manipulator and knew firsthand what kind of gut kicker that could be. “A cannon? That conjures up all kinds of unpleasant images.”

Rose shrugged self consciously. “All of them would be fairly accurate. But I don’t have time to discuss the finer points of my mode of travel.”

“Right. But five minutes: can’t you set it for longer?” How on earth (or elsewhere) was he supposed to find the Doctor in five minutes? And what good would it do if she was only going to get recalled anyway? What was going on?

Rose pushed up the sleeve of her jacket and pressed a sequence of buttons on the apparatus. “There, I disabled auto recall. I have 11 1/2 hours to re-engage or the signal lock on me will be too degraded to use and I’ll be stuck here.”

Jack didn’t think that was such a bad thing but kept his opinion to himself. He grabbed Rose’s hand. “Come on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to write this story from Jack's POV. It been a "tricky business" to keep my point of view straight and not get into Rose's head, but it's also been a good exercise for me. Let me know if I slip up, okay?


	3. Catching Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack tells Rose about the year that never was.

Jack got them a cab to Torchwood. They were silent on the drive, each immersed in their own thoughts. Jack thoughts were spinning around Rose’s sudden appearance. There was so much he didn’t know. But none of it was a conversation for a cab.

Occasionally she would catch him in a thoughtful stare, smile briefly and then retreat to her window view. He couldn’t help staring. She was as lovely as he remembered, but she was also changed, and it was more than just growing up a few years. Traveling with the Doctor, that could certainly change a person – after all, look at him: from con man to tragic hero – but somehow he thought this was more. What had happened to her after she “fell”, as she referred to it? The Doctor had assured him that she was safe with her family and Mickey in this alternate universe. Jack grimaced. How had the Doctor known it was so safe? And it wasn’t as if the time lord didn’t get things wrong sometimes... A surge of fierce protectiveness washed over his usually jaded attitude. If Rose Tyler was in danger, well then it was a damned good thing he couldn’t die after all because there wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t do for her sake.

Rose hadn’t recognized the address when he gave it but she did recognize the location when they arrived. “The rift?” she queried after the cab sped away.

“Torchwood, now.” It was very late so they should have the place to themselves. He didn’t want to have their debriefing with the rest of the team ogling and eavesdropping. With any luck they’d find the Doctor and their blissful reunion would be all over before Ianto showed up with croissants and the morning paper in a few hours time. The unease that was prickling just under his skin told him it wasn’t going to be so simple, and that Rose’s quest had more than cupid’s arrow involved.

“Torchwood!” Rose let her disapproval show, slowing to a halt several paces behind him.

“Things are different after…” he paused then changed direction of his sentence and his walk. He slung a friendly arm around her shoulders and gave her his trademark matinee idol grin. “For one thing: I’m in charge.”

Rose still looked skeptical but allowed him to usher her over to the monument. He activated the hidden lift, “Going down.”

Jack used the few minutes it took to descend to apprise Rose of present-day Torchwood. He explained that they should have the place to themselves for a couple of hours. “By that time I hope to have you back with the Doctor.”

Rose nodded while she looked around. Jack knew what she was noticing: this was a far cry from the clinical and cold Torchwood in London. He’d seen the after-action photos. No smooth white walls here. She thought the Doctor would approve and told Jack as much.

He shrugged and tried to hide his hurt. Intellectually he’d accepted that the Doctor found being around him uncomfortable now he was immortal, but the rejection from his old friend (hero) still stung. “I wouldn’t know; the Doctor doesn’t come around here. I understand his aversion to all things Torchwood, especially after – well. Let’s just say he and I haven’t been in a synchronous orbit for a long time,” he sighed but then forced a measure of cheerfulness into his voice. “But we did have an adventure a year ago and I think I can get him to reply to my signal. The rift’s energy will help with the broadcast.”

Jack was glad to get out of his damp overcoat but groaned silently when he saw how wet his shirt was underneath. Rose was very observant, so before she could ask he offered a vague explanation to his general sogginess. “Had a run in with a couple of blokes who thought I owed them some money; ended up in the water before things were settled.” According to the Doctor, Rose didn’t know she had brought him permanently back to life; for some reason he was shy about it now so he cut his explanation short.

“And did you? Owe them money?”

Jack pretended to be affronted, “Captain Jack only bets on a sure thing!”

He was pleased to hear her chuckle. Up until now Rose had been much too serious.

Leading her to the hub, he cast about wondering exactly what he could use to send the signal. He was going to piss of somebody, messing with their computer. In the end he decided that Gwen would be the most forgiving and made for her station. Using his admin code, he overrode her security protocols and began to configure what he thought he needed for a galactic, yet private, hailing signal.  
Rose watched him work but also kept looking about the room. She shifted her weight repeatedly and kept her hands and arms in slight motion. It reminded him of an athlete poised for a race. Or a fight. What had happened to his Rose Tyler?

“So, how long’s it been? Over on the other side?” Jack kept his voice casual.

“Hard to say. It took about 18 months for the cannon to become operational. I’ve made multiple jumps to different times, different universes even. When I was back in Pete’s World – that’s what we called it – I was pretty focused on just getting ready for the next jump.” Rose rubbed her forehead wearily. “But if I had to make an estimate I’d say altogether four years or so. How long’s it been for you?”

“Three years, give or take. But one of those years never was for most people, so for Earth it’s been two years since the Battle of Canary Wharf.”

“One of those years never was? I’m thinking that had something to do with the Doctor, yeah? That was your adventure with him? What happened? Were the stars going out?”

“Stars? No… nothing about stars.” Jack told Rose how he’d found the hand the Doctor had lost during the Sycarax invasion and had kept it. He explained that it “reacted” to proximity to the Doctor and he’d used it to finally track him down. The Doctor had been avoiding him for reasons he’d explain later but that the wild chase had led them far, far into the future to the outer edges of the universe.

He told her of the Time Lord called the Master who’d been disguised as Professor Yana and how he’d used them to escape and come back to Earth and his nefarious plans. He told her about the Toclafane and subjugation of the planet. He glossed over the torture of the Doctor, but she blinked back her tears and bit her lip nevertheless. He didn’t tell her about his own torture and repeated execution.

“Finally, a year to the day when it all began Martha completed the Doctor’s escape plan. He used Archangel, the Master’s global psychic network against him by getting Martha to have all the people in the world, all at the same think of the Doctor and call out to him. Their combined mental energy restored him.”

“And the Master?”

“Shot by his own wife. He died in the Doctor’s arms, refusing to regenerate.”

“Refusing! I didn’t know that was an option.”

Jack tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, “Yeah apparently, a time lord can choose to die if he wants to.”

“The poor Doctor: to finally find another Time Lord and then to watch him die.”

“Rose, he was a psychopath. Purely evil. Nobody else was sad to see him go.”

“But the Doctor was, wasn’t he.”

“Yeah.” _Family could be a real bitch at times._ Jack thought of his own twisted brother. He finished typing in code. “Okay, that should do it. We’ll send our call and wait for the TARDIS.” He pressed a key with flourish. They watched for a moment as the rift flared and then slowly subsided. The moment seemed anticlimactic.

After a few heartbeats and no signature wheezing sound of the TARDIS materializing, Jack felt a flash of panic. He covered it with a grin and focused on Rose. “Now we wait. How about a drink?”

“Jack, tell me about Martha.”

He knew immediately this was not just a request to pass the time and smiled gently. “No worries, Rose. Don’t get me wrong; Martha is brilliant and beautiful, but the Doctor looks right through her. She’s his companion only; someone to impress with his gob and show the stars to.”

Rose wrinkled up her nose. He could see her struggling not to be jealous.

Then Jack remembered. “Actually, I don’t think she’s traveling with him anymore. She was asking me about Torchwood. I think she knew her time was about up and was thinking of her future. Walking the world for him was a lot to ask and it took a lot out of her. Maybe too much.” Actually Jack knew exactly what had happened to Martha Jones. She’d joined UNIT and from what he’d heard was doing quite well. Jack kept tabs on most of the Doctor’s ex-companions.

He watched as his compassionate friend processed this. Finally she offered, “I’m sure Martha is brilliant and I’d like her if I get to meet her. I know I wasn’t supposed to come back, to be able to get back, ever. And the Doctor shouldn’t be alone. He needs people around him to keep the shadows away. If it couldn’t be me, it had to be somebody and,” she flashed a cheeky grin, “I know he only takes the best.”

Jack wanted to hug and kiss her. She was just too good! And wise too. Perhaps that’s what Jack needed too: people around him to help keep his shadows at bay…. Maybe he should make more of an effort with his team…let them get closer… or maybe he should reach out to those ex-companions instead of just watching over them from a distance….

“So you mentioned a drink, yeah? Whacha got? Might as well; to pass the time.”

Jack clapped his hands together. “That’s my girl! I have a nice bottle of 60 year old Scotch in my desk. I’ll even find you a clean glass. Rose Tyler’s back!” He punched the air for emphasis and laughed when Rose copied him. “Let’s celebrate!”

The room trembled around them and then there was a jolt in his stomach, like activating the vortex manipulator unprepared. “What the hell?”

Rose grabbed his arm. “That felt like the dimension cannon!”

Alarms were going off around them, and monitor screens filled with static. He tried calling up some programs but nothing responded. “I’ve lost all communications, all information feeds. We’re blind.”

The room around them shuddered violently. Pieces of ceiling tile cashed to the floor and paperwork slid off work stations. Bookshelves toppled and anything loose shifted. Jack and Rose were knocked off their feet and tried to dodge the worst of the debris.

“Earthquake?” Rose almost sounded hopeful, rolling to her feet when the room stopped moving.

Jack wanted to accept her proposal: a natural disaster was a better alternative to things he could imagine. “I don’t know. Let’s get topside.”

They ran to the lift.


	4. Loop Complete

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dearest friends go their separate ways (as Cannon demands) while we truly wish it could be different.

The lift was down: a fail-safe protocol Jack dimly remembered as he banged on the door in frustration. “Come on,” he muttered and headed for the stairs. “Watch your footing, especially if we get another aftershock.”

“Right behind you,” Rose assured him.

They burst through the visitor’s entrance and froze. By this time it should be early morning not black of night. Car alarms and assorted sirens blared in the distance.

“What happened? Shouldn’t it be morning by now? Why’s it so dark?”

“I don’t know,” Jack replied. A sick feeling that had little to do with too much alcohol and not enough food, was twisting his gut. With fatalistic dread he lifted his gaze skyward. “Rose, look up.”

She swore softly. “Where’s the sky?”

“We’ve moved. The whole damn planet has moved!! That’s not even our space out there!”

“It’s happening. The stars aren’t just going out, whole planets are being taken! We’ve got to find the Doctor, Jack. Right now.”

“There must be some kind of force field holding in the air and heat...” mused Jack. “Somebody wants us alive.”

“Jack...”

Jack spun back to Rose. “You asked something about stars going out before? What did you mean?”

Rose blinked and then answered him in a rush. “Back on Pete’s World – the stars have been disappearing. Not going out, not like a black hole, just vanishing. Solar systems are coming unraveled, planets are dying. Weather and seismic activity on Earth is going crazy. That’s why they invented the dimension cannon; the walls between universes are breaking down and things...things can pass through the Void. That’s why they let me try and find the Doctor. So he could fix it. I’ve hopped to other worlds, other universes and it’s happening there too. And now...” Rose swept an arm upward, “this! Jack, Pete’s World is dying. Mum and Mickey are still there.”

Jack made a decision. “Rose, you’ve got to go back. We sent the Doctor a signal but we’re not there anymore. Your time is running out. If you don’t jump, they won’t be able to find you to get you back. Whoever took the Earth and those other planets have some serious technology and I don’t think they're using it to get us all together for a garden party. If you stay Rose, you might not get out of this.”

Rose frowned clearly not liking what Jack was saying but not arguing either. “Jack, I could help.”

He placed hands on her squared shoulders, shaking his head but smiling lovingly. “No darling, not this time. Get out of here while you can. If the Doctor comes, I’ll tell him what you’re doing and why. I’ve got your hopper signature now that you’ve been down in the hub with it, so we can find you.”

“Alright. But I’m coming back you know; I’ll have these coordinates for finding our stolen Earth.”

Jack lifted his hands to frame her face and grinned, but his eyes were serious. “Never doubted it.” He kissed her hard, squarely on the mouth but didn’t let himself acknowledge how her lips softened and responded. Abruptly her let go and took three cautionary steps back. “But when you do, make sure you bring the biggest, baddest, badass gun you can carry.”

Rose smiled crookedly and pressed buttons on her cuff. “You stay alive, Jack Harkness.” In a flash of blue light she vanished.

Jack laughed aloud at her parting comment. “Oh, Rose Tyler, you are still worth fighting for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short and bittersweet reunion that (at least for me) explains some of the finer points in that episode. Like, why was Rose toting a huge badass gun? How could she hop to Earth when it had been stolen away? How had Jack been able to jump in (albeit tragically too late) and shoot the Dalek when his "Doctor detector" was already on board the TARDIS? Why wasn't he shocked to see Rose Tyler back from the great beyond?  
> I hope that you are satisfied with my explanation.


End file.
